The Making of the Modern World

The Making of the Modern World collection covers the history of Western trade, encompassing the coal, iron, and steel industries, the railway industry, the cotton industry, banking and finance, and the emergence of the modern corporation. It is also strong in the rise of the modern labor movement, the evolving status of slavery, the condition and making of the working class, colonization, the Atlantic world, Latin American/Caribbean studies, social history, gender, and the economic theories that championed and challenged capitalism in the nineteenth century. In addition, the archive offers resources on the role of finance and taxation and the growth of the early modern monarchy. It features essential texts covering the function of financial institutions, the crisis of the French monarchy and the French Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century, and the connection between the democratic goals of revolutionaries and their legal aspirations. McMaster has access to the entire collection.

• The Making of the Modern World: Part I, The Goldsmiths'-Kress Collection, 1450-1850 offers ways of understanding the expansion of world trade, the Industrial Revolution, and the development of modern capitalism, supporting research in a variety of disciplines. This collection follows the development of the modern western world through the lens of trade and wealth – the driving force behind many of the major historical events during the period (1450-1850). Users have access to an abundance of rare books and primary source materials, many of which are the only known copy of the work.
• The Making of the Modern World: Part II, 1851-1914 takes The Making of the Modern World series to the end of the nineteenth century. Comprised mainly of monographs, reports, correspondence, speeches, and surveys, this collection broadens Gale's international coverage of social, economic, and business history, as well as political science, technology, industrialisation, and the birth of the modern corporation. In page after page of primary source documents, researchers can evaluate the profound impact of the Industrial Revolution on the political and social conditions of nineteenth-century workers, factory owners and national economies.
• The Making of the Modern World, Part III, 1890-1945 is a collection of monographs and periodicals on political economy, trade, finance, industry, business, labour, and related subjects. The volumes in the product are primarily in English, but also in French, German, and other European. The collection is sourced exclusively from the Senate House Library at the University of London. The works included are of interest to scholars in European and world history and meet the desire for more twentieth century content taking the collection past the First World War, the Great Depression, and the Second World War. Users are provided with exclusive inroads into general political and philosophical thought of the period. This collection is of particular value to anyone with an interest in early twentieth century history, political science, philosophy, business and economic law, and women's studies.
• The Making of the Modern World: Part IV: 1800-1890 offers definitive coverage of the "Age of Capital," the industrial revolution, and the High Victorian Era, when the foundations of modern-day capitalism and global trade were established. It includes unique material at the Senate House Library, University of London, that was not previously available; subsequent library acquisitions have broadened the scope of the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature beyond economics. The core of the collection – 1850s–1890 – offers rich content in the high Victorian period, the apogee of the British Empire. This is a major collection of rare and unique items that support a range of research and teaching topics related to the nineteenth century, including slavery and abolition, the growth of capitalism, and the emergence of new political thinking such as nationalism and Marxism. It also includes the rise of the United States and Germany as economic powerhouses. It is especially strong in “grey literature” and non-mainstream materials rarely preserved by libraries—including pamphlets, plans, ephemera, and private collections.